GAZETTE & HERALD: RESIDENTS and shop owners have said Somerfield's grey fascia is putting people off coming to the Mill Street area of town.

A year after the first of two shops next to the current Somerfield store closed, with the supermarket due to expand into them, locals say the front of the store looks unclean.

This is despite planning permission being accepted in September for a new illuminated fascia. However, Somerfield say the people of Calne will not have to wait too much longer.

Owner of Blakeney Interiors across Mill St, Carrie Blakeney, 40, from Devizes, said: "It doesn't look very nice. It's like a war zone. It really lets the town centre down as it is lovely here."

Jak Henton, 25, from Kingswood in Bristol works in the tattoo parlour nearby and said she was fed up looking at the site everyday.

"It's just dead. It's a skeleton of a build that needs doing up. A war zone does cover it, I would say."

Calne resident Heather Cobb, 50, from Lavender Drive, agreed saying: "It's not very nice. It's disgusting in fact.

"It's been like that for a year. It definitely needs tidying up.

"I thought Somerfield was getting on with it. Hopefully it will not take too much longer."

A spokesperson from Somerfield said development for the site should begin at the end of February, for a grand opening a month later: "We will be changing the fascia once we have the refit but cannot say to what extent."